登陆注册
4610300000198

第198章 OLD MR. PREJUDICE, THE KEEPER OF EAR-GATE, WITH HI

SIXTY DEAF MEN UNDER HIM

'Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?'--Naaman.

'Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?'--Nathanael.

' . . observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality.'--Paul.

Old Mr. Prejudice was well known in the wars of Mansoul as an angry, unhappy, and ill-conditioned old churl. Old Mr. Prejudice was placed by Diabolus, his master, as keeper of the ward at the post of Ear-gate, and for that fatal service he had sixty completely deaf men put under him as his company. Men eminently advantageous for that fatal service. Eminently advantageous,--

inasmuch as it mattered not one atom to them what was spoken in their ear either by God or by man.

1. Now, to begin with, this churlish old man had already earned for himself a very evil name. For what name could well be more full of evil memories and of evil omens than just this name of Prejudice? Just consider what prejudice is. Prejudice, when we stop over it and take it to pieces and look well at it,--prejudice is so bad and so abominable that you would not believe it could be so bad till you had looked at it and at how it acts in your own case. For prejudice gives judgment on your case and gives orders for your execution before your defence has been heard, before your witnesses have been called, before your summons has been served, ay, and even before your indictment has been drawn out. What a scandal and what an uproar a malfeasance of justice like that would cause if it were to take place in any of our courts of law! Only, the thing is impossible; you cannot even imagine it. We shall have Magna Charta up before us in the course of these lectures. Well, ever since Magna Charta was extorted from King John, such a scandal as I have supposed has been impossible either in England or in Scotland. And that such cases should still be possible in Russia and in Turkey places those two old despotisms outside the pale of the civilised world. And yet, loudly as we all denounce the Czar and the Sultan, eloquently as we boast over Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and what not, every day you and I are doing what would cost an English king his crown, and an English judge his head. We all do it every day, and it never enters one mind out of a hundred that we are trampling down truth, and righteousness, and fairplay, and brotherly love. We do not know what a diabolical wickedness we are perpetrating every day. The best men among us are guilty of that iniquity every day, and they never confess it to themselves; no one ever accuses them of it; and they go down to death and judgment unsuspicious of the discovery that they will soon make there. You would not steal a stick or a straw that belonged to me; but you steal from me every day what all your gold and mine can never redeem; you murder me every day in my best and my noblest life.

You me, and I you.

2. Old Mr. Prejudice. Now, there is a golden passage in Jonathan Edwards's Diary that all old men should lay well to heart and conscience. 'I observe,' Edwards enters, 'that old men seldom have any advantage of new discoveries, because these discoveries are beside a way of thinking they have been long used to. Resolved, therefore, that, if ever I live to years, I will be impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and receive them, if rational, how long soever I have been used to another way of thinking. I am too dogmatical; I have too much of egotism; my disposition is always to be telling of my dislike and my scorn.'

What a fine, fresh, fruitful, progressive, and peaceful world we should soon have if all our old and all our fast-ageing men would enter that extract into their diary! How the young would then love and honour and lean upon the old; and how all the fathers would always abide young and full of youthful life like their children!

Then the righteous should flourish like the palm-tree; he should grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.

What a free scope would then be given to all God's unfolding providences, and what a warm welcome to all His advancing truths!

What sore and spreading wounds would then be salved, what health and what vigour would fill all the body political, as well as all the body mystical! May the Lord turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest the earth be smitten with a curse!

同类推荐
  • St. Ives

    St. Ives

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 正说篇

    正说篇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 旌异记

    旌异记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上洞玄灵宝净供妙经

    太上洞玄灵宝净供妙经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 脉症治方

    脉症治方

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 我之敌

    我之敌

    刑警田浩奉命调查一起密室杀人案,在好友秦御风的协助下,他成功破解了密室之谜,却苦于没有证据而只得任凶手逍遥法外。然而,一切不过刚刚开始,一连串的密室杀人案件接踵而来,且密室设计与杀人手法一次比一次巧妙。田浩一路追查,当逐渐接近真相的时候,却发现真相背后另有隐情,而他自己也渐渐陷入了一个万劫不复的深渊……
  • 泰坦与龙之王

    泰坦与龙之王

    新书《极恶龙君》已发布!泰坦,与最古老的神袛一同诞生的近神生物。龙,雄踞无数世界食物链顶端的强大掠食者。继承了泰坦与金龙血脉的穆瑞亚,端坐于王座之上。红龙,蓝龙,绿龙……青铜龙,赤铜龙,黄铜龙……紫晶龙,水晶龙,翡翠龙,众多巨龙匍匐在王座之下。云巨人,雾巨人,石巨人,霜巨人……风暴巨人,山岭巨人,潮汐巨人……无数的巨人向王座跪拜。王者的力量,不仅仅是用来杀戮与征服!群:678832963
  • 总裁有令之夫人别想逃

    总裁有令之夫人别想逃

    她普通,自卑,怯懦,毫无存在感;她俏丽,自信,冷漠,隐忍待发;“我们在一起了。”三个月前,暗恋了两年的学长和自己的好友如是在自己面前宣布。“重做!”文件被第三次甩在自己面前,工作屡遭坎坷。“怎么又穿成这样?真是上不了台面。”姐姐如此嘲讽她。“拿杯橙汁送到我房间来。”弟弟熟练地使唤她。父母的无视已经是家常便饭。这是穆雪云前二十三年的生活。一夜醉梦,无意中挤进了那条时空的罅隙,触碰到自己的命盘,当指针变了方向,命运的轨迹随之改变,自此以后,她的人生要重新来过!甩掉家庭的束缚,无视姐弟,智斗好友,工作上大放异彩,崭新的她要撑起一片属于她的世界!当外貌悄然发生改变,隐匿的气质显露,自信华丽归来,当所有人的眼中都烙印下了她的身影,她的眼中却只剩下了一人。“你怎么永远对我有说不完的谢谢?”程皓宇语气无奈,眼中却是满满的宠溺。淡淡的薄荷香盈满周身,穆雪云满意地吸吸鼻子,又往程皓宇怀里钻了钻:“因为喜欢你呀。”
  • 痫门

    痫门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 懒神诸天穿越

    懒神诸天穿越

    这是一本放飞自我写的书.然后弃更。毕竟自己都看不下去了。
  • 沙娜拉之剑Ⅰ:传奇之剑

    沙娜拉之剑Ⅰ:传奇之剑

    远古的邪恶力量日渐复苏,笼罩北方的暗云将扩散至四境。在和平的穴地谷,身上有着一半精灵血统的谢伊·欧姆斯福德是沙娜拉血脉留存在这世上的仅存后裔,也是能使用传奇武器“沙娜拉之剑”对抗黑暗势力的最后传人。从黑衣德鲁伊上门警告那一刻起,安定平稳的生活已经是昨日幻梦,因为邪恶的骷髅使者正奉着黑魔君的追杀令,前来摧毁唯一能威胁到它的血脉。受黑暗驱使的地精与巨人大军整军待发,即将侵略四境诸国。在熟知历史的神秘德鲁伊带队之下,谷地人、高地人、边境王子、侏儒、精灵组成八人小队,怀着各自的意志,踏上了路途茫茫的寻剑之旅……
  • 心灵的潜能:硅谷亿万富翁成功秘钥

    心灵的潜能:硅谷亿万富翁成功秘钥

    宇宙的秘密就在心灵的深处,那儿的潜能可以让你的成功石破天惊。激发心灵的潜能,寻找成功的力量。唤醒你心中沉睡的潜力,相信你能,你就无所不能!大师安东尼·罗宾感动推荐。《心灵的潜能》能帮你:增加心灵的能量,改变心灵的颜色,提供心灵的高度,稳固心灵的专注,练就心灵的耐心,消除心灵的恐惧,填补心灵的空白,顺应心灵的法则。
  • 轮回复仇之路碰上独宠

    轮回复仇之路碰上独宠

    前世,自己被最好的闺蜜!如何一步一步弄得家破人亡!绑架,认清,背叛,这一系列的事件,最后却用一刀结束了所以,我不甘心!如果能重来我一定!一定要你们都血债血偿!!(叮……叮……)“你的一生还未结束,却意外死亡,现在即将轮回——”
  • 绝世神医:推倒冷傲王爷

    绝世神医:推倒冷傲王爷

    一朝穿越,变成了没爹没娘没人爱的孤女一枚。不过她是谁?现代神医,一双圣手,走进鬼门关的人都能被她拉回人间,治个病,解个毒不过信手拈来。曾任人欺辱又如何?如今她医毒双绝,有内功心法护体,又得万蛊之法,且看她如何脱胎换骨,扭转命运的齿轮!只是,想要明哲保身的她为何偏偏惹上了那个传说中傲慢暴戾的王爷?“想跑?你既然睡了本王一次,就得睡本王一辈子!”
  • 能工巧匠的故事

    能工巧匠的故事

    童话是世界儿童文学中永不凋谢的花冠,是与我们少年儿童捉迷藏的小朋友。童话王国简直就是一个多姿多彩的万花筒,在那些语言浅显、妙趣盎然的美丽童话故事里,有的蕴藏着严肃的人生准则,富于哲理,发人深省;有的反映了社会的真实现象,揭露了黑暗、鞭打了丑恶;有的揭示了大自然的奥秘,使人增长知识,开拓视野。童话奠定了我们的人生基础,影响着我们的一生。因此应该把那些名篇珍品传给后代,陶冶后代。为此,我们编辑了这套《世界经典童话故事全集》丛书,把世界各国许多童话名篇佳作装在一个美丽的花篮里,让它熠熠闪烁的光辉照耀下一代人茁壮成长,使孩子们梦幻般地度过金色的童年。